Putting Your Definite Purpose to Words

I can’t remember exactly when I read The Master Key to Riches for the first time but I believe it was just over twenty years ago. Truth be told, it was so much to take in at that point that I recall having to go through each subsection of every chapter twice before moving on - just to begin to digest it! In going back through the chapter on “Definiteness of Purpose” now, there are so many things that have happened since that I can directly connect to even developing a shell of a definite purpose, then building on that as I progressed!

As Hill explains “The Major Advantages of Definiteness of Purpose,” he details two specific things that jumped off the page at me as I reread it again for what we’re working through here. He suggests that “it makes one more alert in the recognition of opportunities related to one’s Major Purpose, and it inspires the necessary courage to act upon those opportunities when they appear.” While I can’t point to any one grand opportunity, I go on for days about small - but very specific - opportunities I’ve had since that initial reading. 

Hill went on to share that “it inspires the co-operation of other people.” I don’t believe a week passes without me having a conversation with someone where I say how consistently amazed I am by the caliber of people I’ve had the opportunity to build friendships with, and how those opportunities continue to appear. I won’t bore you by naming all of them, but it’s been something this (kinda) high school educated country boy never would have dreamed of!

When I look at all this in context, I can clearly see that the more clarity I’ve built around my own definite purpose - and the larger it’s grown in overall scope - the bigger those opportunities have been and the great “the co-operation of other people” has become. As I mentioned before, Cindy and I are frequently asked why we do what we do. The more we’ve been able to dial this in, the bigger the opportunities become - and the more courage we have to act upon them!

About a week after What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!) was released, I received a series of text messages from a friend who I had worked with for several years but has served as more of a mention for the last fifteen or so. As rare as a message thread that long with him was, I could tell he was excited about reading it; he asked a couple of questions (since he knew a few of the folks I had referred to in various stories) and he pointed out the specific parts he liked the most. The following morning, I received another text that simply read, “Call when free.” With the amount of time he’s invested into me over the last twenty-five years, I stopped what I was doing and called right away.

We chatted through some of the points that stood out to him the most and we reminisced about the background of a few of the stories, but what grabbed me the most was when he said he believed the book (which he had completed within twenty-four hours of receiving it) would benefit thousands of people I’d likely never meet. I responded by saying, “and that’s what gets me out of bed each morning!” His statement put my definite purpose to words.

As leaders, we carry a tremendous responsibility every single day. And quite frankly, some days it sucks… But the more clarity we can develop around the definite purpose we’re working toward, those days will suck a little less and the more impact we’ll be able to make for the teams we serve. This rarely happens immediately though, so we’ll need to start where we are - and we’ll pick up there next time.